Regiment: a hip new coffee destination in Sydney CBD

Is this the best-looking café in Sydney?

May 21, 2017 2:00pm

By Pat Nourse

Regiment

Two Synesso Hydra machines. A fit-out that accents marble and blond timber with brass detailing, right down to the giant paperclips holding the menu together. Kombucha on tap, turmeric, house sodas and Mörk hot chocolate complementing the Five Senses coffee offer. Ethiopian Ardi for filter, Colombian Popayan Cincuenta for black and the Dark Horse blend ("delicate herbal aromas, dark chocolate baritone flavours, juicy blackcurrant notes, syrupy body") for white. Even before you lift cup to lip, Regiment is off to a good start.

It's the latest opening in the Martin Place-Wynyard axis of coffee awesomeness that is making this swathe of the Sydney CBD the most densely well-caffeinated few blocks in Australia. And the coffee is good. Really good.

Guru Projects made the place a feast for the eyes, but there's actual feasting to be done, too. The eggs are slow-cooked, which may be off-putting for anyone who objects to the sloppy texture that technique often yields, but the other contemporary flourishes to the menu show more promise.

In the spreads department you'll find not just Vegemite, but wattle macadamia peanut butter, yellowbox honey, and peach and brandy jam. The tomatoes for the toasties are scorched for flavour before they're thrown together with provolone and ham on organic sourdough, while the breakfast bowls come laden with sautéed greens, avocado, house-made kimchi and marinated tofu on a base of black rice and quinoa.

The combination of truffle oil and a slow-cooked egg means that we'll probably never order the barley with brown rice, mushrooms and Taleggio from the lunch menu (and we're likewise puzzled by the addition of a synthetic product such as truffle oil to the mushroom and goat's curd on miche), but there's more potential in the lobster roll, an OTT $18 number with bisque-flavoured mayonnaise, Champagne butter and confit fennel on a soft milk-bun.

More promising still, perhaps, for those of us looking to extend our coffee consumption beyond office hours is the little sign on the menu board that says LIQUOR COMING. There's outdoor seating on the way, and when that's installed and the licence is sorted (two months, give or take) the space will do cocktails after dark.